


Kiss it Better

by buoyantsaturn



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: 5+1 Things, Canon Compliant, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Healing, M/M, Minor Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, Will Solace Appreciation, mom says its MY turn to give will solace some backstory, ton spoilers?? non existent nico solo book potential spoilers?? ifkyk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:33:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29514663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buoyantsaturn/pseuds/buoyantsaturn
Summary: “Um. I heard there were some severe burns?”“Oh, yeah,” Will replied. “I, um...kissed it better?”
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 18
Kudos: 97





	Kiss it Better

**Author's Note:**

> hello!! i havent written a 5+1 fic in so long so when i got even the tiniest scrap of an idea u know i had to do it  
> its mostly fluff!! mostly >:)  
> enjoy!
> 
> alternate title is five times will could kiss it better and one time he couldnt :)

0.

When Will was little, when his mama was still taking a break from touring to raise him, he was clumsy. He would always be a  _ little _ clumsy, but not so much as when he was a toddler - it also didn’t help that he bruised like a peach. He would fall over easily, or bump into corners, and every time he scraped his knee or banged his head, Naomi would scoop him up into her arms.

Naomi cooed over him and pressed a kiss to anything that hurt until Will stopped crying. And when he got a little bit older, when Naomi no longer lifted him off the ground, she would still pull him into her arms and ask, “Do you need me to kiss it better?” 

He remembered one particular day when he tripped in the backyard, and his mama found him crying with a scrape on his knee. She brought him inside, cleaned up the cut, and covered it with a bandaid before Will asked, “Can you kiss it better?” 

Naomi smiled and kissed his knee, then his forehead, and then pulled him into a hug. 

The next morning when Will peeled off the bandaid, his knee was totally healed.

Kisses must be  _ magic, _ he decided. 




Will’s favorite part about kindergarten was recess. It was the only time he got to play with his new friends, even if Macy liked coloring on the blacktop more than she liked to play on the swings with Will and Ryan.

There was one day when Will couldn’t decide if he wanted to color or play on the swings, so he kept running back and forth between his two friends. He would help Macy color in her newest chalk drawing for a few minutes, and then he would run to the swing set. Then, he would race Ryan to see who would swing the highest first, until he scared himself into thinking that he would end up swinging himself upside down, and he would run back to Macy. 

He had just finished coloring in a fish that Macy had drawn, and was on his way back to the swings when he watched Ryan jump from his swing and propel himself forward, almost like he was flying. Will thought it was cool until Ryan hit the ground and started crying. He ran to his friend’s side and saw a woodchip sticking out of Ryan’s palm, with a little bit of blood trickling out from underneath it. 

“Go get Miss Lisa!” Ryan wailed, but instead of running to find their teacher, Will came closer and knelt beside him. “It hurts! I need help!” 

“I can help,” Will told him calmly, and took Ryan’s hand. He pulled out the woodchip, then leaned down to kiss the palm of Ryan’s hand - carefully avoiding the actual cut, because Will knew it would probably hurt if he touched it. When he pulled away and looked at the skin, he saw that the wound had closed and the blood had stopped flowing. He grinned. “There! All better!” 

Ryan gasped. “It doesn’t hurt anymore! Thanks, Will!” He threw his arms around his friend and hugged him tight.

“Ryan, honey,” Miss Lisa’s voice came suddenly from behind them, “are you okay? I saw you fall off the swing.” 

“I’m okay,” Ryan told her, pulling away from Will and wiping his tears away with his arm. 

Will held up Ryan’s hand for the teacher to see and said proudly, “I kissed it better!” 




Whenever Naomi went on tour, Will went to stay with his grandparents. He always wished he could go with his mama, but he only got to go to her concerts whenever she played a show in Austin - and even then, he didn’t get to stay the whole time. Even though he was  _ almost ten, _ and he  _ could _ stay up to see his mama after the show, not that anybody seemed to believe him.

Still, he didn’t mind staying with his grandpops and grandmama, because at least he got to stay at the same school with all his friends, and Grandmama always made the best apple pies for dessert. He also got to help in their garden sometimes, which he loved. 

He didn’t love that he always had to clean up after himself right away. Sometimes when he was at home with his mama, he would get distracted and leave his toys out for a little while, but he didn’t get in trouble as long as he put everything away before he went to bed that night. Grandmama always made him stop whatever he was doing and clean up his mess, even if it meant that he would get distracted again and leave  _ another _ mess somewhere else. 

Like the time when he had been playing with his new Hot Wheels cars in the living room, and wanted to get his Legos out to build a ramp to drive off of. But then when he got into his bedroom, he started building something even  _ cooler,  _ until Grandmama shouted for him to come clean up his mess. Will ran out to the living room and grabbed as many of the cars as he could hold in his hands and carried them to his bedroom, though he was pretty sure he dropped a few along the way. He was coming back out to get the rest when he heard a scream and a  _ bang! _

“William!” Grandmama shouted, though she didn’t sound mad. It was almost like she was...scared? “Will, come here, baby, I need help.” 

Will came around the corner to see his grandmama laying on the floor, tears rolling down her cheeks and one socked foot turned at a weird angle. 

“Honey, I need you to call me an ambulance, okay?” Grandmama told him, trying to sound calm but Will could hear the shake in her voice. “Look at me, don’t look at my foot. Grab the phone, baby, and call 9-1-1, and get me some help.” 

“I can help,” Will told her, and stepped over one of his dropped cars to reach her legs. 

“Don’t touch it, Will,” Grandmama exclaimed, “or you’ll hurt it!” 

“It’s okay, Grandmama, it won’t hurt anymore,” Will promised her. “I can kiss it better.” He placed one hand on her leg, and lightly gripped her turned foot in the other. He pressed a kiss to her ankle and gently turned her foot forward, hearing Grandmama gasp as he did so. “Does it feel better?” 

Grandmama was watching him with eyes the size of dinner plates, none of the fear gone from her gaze. “Y-yes, honey, it’s much better now. Can you still grab the phone for me, baby?” 

Will got up and brought her the landline, then went back to cleaning up his cars. He heard Grandmama call for an ambulance herself, which he thought was dumb since he had already kissed her ankle better, and then he pressed himself to the wall just around the corner when he heard Grandmama say his mama’s name.

“Naomi, there’s something off about that boy,” Grandmama hissed into the phone.

Will didn’t stick around to hear the rest. 




Mama sent him to a summer camp the next year. She said that he still wasn’t old enough to go on tour with her, and that Grandmama didn’t have the energy to keep up with him, but that camp would be a great place to make new friends.

She didn’t tell him that he would have siblings there. Not that he knew who his siblings were. Or that there were gods in heaven other than the one that Grandpops preached about at church. And apparently his dad was one of those gods? It was a lot to take in from somebody who was also half-horse - which was  _ really _ distracting, by the way, so maybe Will hadn’t actually heard any of that right.

For the first few nights, Will slept on the floor in cabin eleven, even though there were empty cabins and empt _ ier _ cabins - places that had beds that weren’t being slept on - but at least cabin eleven gave him the best opportunity to make new friends. Since, you know, there were so many other kids in there. 

He got to follow his counselor, Luke, around to a bunch of different activities, like archery and footracing - and for some reason, forging? And then to the arena, where they could fight with the  _ swords _ they just  _ forged? _ \- and quite possibly the craziest place in all of camp: the lava wall. It was sort of like the rock climbing wall that Will saw in the gym when his class took a field trip to the middle school he was supposed to go to in the fall, except this one had  _ actual lava _ pouring down one side. 

Will was watching one of the older campers climb, and got so distracted by it that he got separated from the rest of his cabin. He pushed his way through the small audience to get a closer look, just in time to see lava shoot out from a crack between the rocks and coat the climber’s arm. She screamed in pain and lost her footing, falling to the ground about ten feet below. 

There was a wave of people who rushed forward, though Will couldn’t manage to get very close. He heard someone shouting for Chiron or somebody named Lee, loud enough that they couldn’t seem to hear Will’s announcements of, “I can help! Let me help!” 

Eventually - after maybe a minute or two at most - Will weaseled his way between people, and was nearly close enough to grab the girl’s hand before somebody placed a hand on his shoulder to pull him back. “Trust me, kiddo, you do  _ not _ need to see something like that on your first day,” they said.

It’s my third day, Will didn’t reply, and shook the hand off. He dropped to his knees and crawled close enough to grab the girl’s hand, pressing a kiss to the edge of one of the many burn marks. He heard different gasps and exclamations all around him, and looked up to see that each of the burns were glowing gold and shrinking rapidly.

“Medic, coming through!” a new voice shouted over the noise of the crowd, and everyone backed away from Will instantly. “Somebody better tell me what…” 

With one hand still holding onto the climber’s, Will tipped his head back. The guy with the medic bag had Will’s same curly blond hair and blue eyes, so for half a second, Will thought he was looking into a mirror. A mirror that aged him about five years or so. 

“...happened,” he finished, his eyes flickering between Will and the girl still laying on the ground. “Um. I heard there were some severe burns?” 

“Oh, yeah,” Will replied. “I, um...kissed it better?” 

The guy’s eyes widened, then a second later, he knelt down in front of Will and held out a hand. “My name’s Lee,” he said with a calming smile. “How about you help me bring Katie over to the infirmary, and then you can tell me more about how you did that.” 




Will hadn’t signed up for this. 

He came to camp and built a new family that didn’t think he was a freak for healing people and occasionally making himself and others glow. He came to  _ camp, _ he didn’t sign up for  _ war. _ He was a kid, not a battlefield medic!

Except that he was.

And just when he had finally stopped seeing Lee’s bashed-in skull every time he closed his eyes, he had lost Michael. 

He wouldn’t lose anyone else. He wouldn’t let any other camper feel the loss of a brother, as long as he could help it. 

Will dodged weapons and monster claws and triaged to the best of his ability. There were a few times that he ran to a fallen demigod and learned that he was too late, but more often than not, he could at least do  _ something. _ He doled out nectar and ambrosia, he slapped on a few quick bandages, and he dragged injured campers out of immediate danger. 

He almost started crying when he found Sherman laying unmoving in a pile of rubble, until Sherman wheezed and cracked open his eyes. Then Will almost started crying for a totally different reason. 

“Just hang on, Sherman,” Will told him as he started digging the other boy’s legs out from under the handful of rocks. “You’re gonna be okay. Stay with me.” He catalogued the injuries and fed Sherman a square of ambrosia. He poured nectar into the worst wounds before wrapping them in tight bandages. He tried all of the healing techniques that Lee had taught him over the last few years, though no matter what he did, it seemed like Sherman only continued fading away. 

Will felt tears start to roll down his cheeks, and tried the only thing he could think of. He leaned over Sherman’s body, framing his face in his hands and pressing a kiss to the center of his forehead. He hadn’t tried to  _ kiss it better _ since the time he’d futilely kissed the less-damaged side of Lee’s skull, so he channeled everything he had into this one kiss - everything, and a prayer to his father. 

Sherman gasped, and Will felt himself sob. 

“You’re gonna be okay,” Will told him as he returned to cleaning and bandaging. “At least, you’re not gonna die today, and hopefully you won’t die tomorrow, either. I’m gonna be  _ so pissed _ if you die tomorrow, Sherman.” 

Sherman coughed. “That makes two of us.” 




Will didn’t think he’d live long enough to get a boyfriend. He’d even had a few especially close calls over the last year or so - and there was also the rising possibility that they would all die by this time next year, too - but now that he had a few moments of peace, he was happy he had someone to spend them with. 

And if anyone deserved peace, it was Nico di Angelo.

For the first handful of months after the battle against Gaea, Will had convinced Nico to take it easy with the training and the powers, since it appeared as though they were out of immediate danger. After the initial conversation, Nico didn’t even really argue with him outside of the occasional eye roll whenever their arrangement was brought up. 

And, of course, in an emergency situation, Nico was allowed to do whatever it took to handle whatever big bad that happened to be attacking them. As long as Will got to be close by to take care of him afterwards. The perfect example of this was the time that giant Nero statue crashed their canoe date. 

When it became clear that the camp needed to start preparing for war again, Nico went back to training. He started off easy with the Underworld-y stuff, though within a week he was taking on two Ares campers at once with his sword. 

As out of practice as he was - which surprisingly wasn’t much considering his months-long sabbatical - Nico managed to get away most days with only a few new nicks and bruises. Though his hands had gone a little soft over time, and had started blistering again almost right away. 

It had become something of a habit for Nico to make his way to the infirmary after every training session so that Will could essentially snap his fingers and cure Nico’s injuries, though Will tended to fuss over him more than was really necessary. Sue him if he liked having the chance to fawn over his boyfriend every once in a while. 

Sometime around the end of Nico’s first week back in the arena full-time, he stepped into a mostly-empty infirmary in search of his boyfriend. For once, Will seemed to be allowing his siblings to do some of the work, and was sitting in his chair with his feet propped up on his desk. He grinned when he saw Nico.

“Not working?” Nico asked as Will jumped to his feet.

Will rolled his eyes. “Apparently I  _ work too hard, _ or something, and I  _ need to give everyone else a chance to practice.” _

Nico hummed and nodded. “They’re right.” 

“You’re supposed to be on my side!” 

Nico tilted his head in thought and hummed again, as if taking the time to really consider the situation. “No, they’re definitely right.” 

Will crossed his arms over his chest with a huff. “See if I heal you today, then.” 

“Please, I can tell you’re itching for something to do,” Nico replied. He held his hands out between them, palms up. “Look at these blisters! Practically  _ begging _ for you to heal them.” 

Will pursed his lips, and Nico could almost see the internal fight happening before Will finally said, “Alright, follow me.” He didn’t grab Nico’s hand to keep from irritating his blisters, so instead he wound an arm around his boyfriend’s shoulders to lead him to one of the private rooms in the back.

“There are plenty of open beds back there,” Nico pointed out as Will opened the door for him. 

“For these injuries?” Will asked. He shook his head. “No, this is  _ much _ too severe. I might even have to keep you here overnight. We’ll have to see how well you take to the healing process.” 

Nico rolled his eyes with so much force that his head tipped back a bit. He walked into the room and sat down on the bed, up near the head with his legs criss-crossed. Will sat down in front of him on the edge of the mattress and held out his hands for Nico to set his own on. Will had gotten pretty good at using his powers to suss out different injuries over the years, but it was pretty clear that day that Nico’s biggest issue was his hands. Plus the bruise on his shoulder that might make it hard for him to sleep later, and maybe the scratch on his opposite elbow. But mainly the blisters. 

“That’s the prognosis?” Nico asked, and Will felt himself smile at his choice of medical terminology. “Are you gonna have to cut me off at the wrists?” 

“Well, the bad news is: you  _ are _ dying,” Will replied. “The good news is that you’re dying at such a slow rate that it’s nearly imperceptible. As for the blisters, I think there really is only one course of treatment.” 

“Nectar?” Nico asked.

“Oh, no, we’re  _ way _ past that point,” Will told him gravely. “The only thing that will help you now is kisses.” 

Nico snorted.  _ “Kisses?” _

Will nodded. “I would say...at  _ least _ three on each hand, and we’ll have to go from there.” 

Nico released a longsuffering sigh. “Alright, do your worst.” 

Will bent forward and made a line of three kisses down Nico’s right hand - near the tip of his middle finger, the center of his palm, and the point where his wrist met his hand - and then repeated the process on the other hand. He kissed the inside of Nico’s left elbow, then darted up to kiss his right shoulder through the fabric of his t-shirt, and then just because he could, he kissed Nico’s cheek, then finally his lips. 

When Will pulled away, Nico was a giggling mess. 

“Feeling better?” Will asked with a bright smile. He felt Nico’s fingers curl against his hands.

“I do,” he replied, and he glanced down at his hands. “Wait, that actually healed them? Did you  _ kiss me better?” _

Will felt himself flush, and ducked his head. “Uh, sort of? Yeah, I guess.” 

Nico’s hands shot out of Will’s to start gesticulating wildly out at his sides. “Why don’t you do that all the time? It took  _ seconds! _ And you’re not tired or anything!” 

Will’s smile turned almost embarrassed, and he rolled his eyes fondly. “Could you imagine if I tried to kiss your  _ werewolf scratches _ better? You would have  _ punched me!” _

Nico paused to consider that. “Hm. Yeah, but I definitely would’ve felt bad about it afterwards.” 

+1. 

Most nights, Will didn’t sleep. He was lucky that he was able to draw energy from the sun, or else he probably would have crashed and burned months ago. (Nico called it his photosynthesis power. Will was just glad that Nico had apparently been paying attention to his online classes.) On the off chance that he did sleep, it was typically just a midday nap.

The sun tended to keep the nightmares at bay, at least for Will. He liked to think that it was, in some way, his dad looking out for him. Chances were that the only difference was the fact that he wasn’t trapped in the dark. 

He didn’t know how Nico could sleep, but then again, Nico had been through it all before. His second trip through Tartarus had probably been nothing compared to the first, and Will counted himself lucky that his own first trip was with someone who had been there before. If they hadn’t had the proper knowledge on how to survive, he didn’t think they would have been able to figure it out as they went. 

Still, Nico sleeping meant Nico waking up from nightmares - usually about Tartarus, sometimes about something so impossibly worse that he couldn’t even get the words out to tell Will. (He understood. On the off chance that he passed out from exhaustion during the night, and on the off chance that he didn’t dream of Tartarus, Will dreamed that he’d died in Lee’s place that summer when Percy discovered the Labyrinth. He was forced to watch as the world went on without him, as people died that shouldn’t have because he wasn’t around to save them.)

Nico’s nightmares were another reason that Will tended to stay awake. He’d learned to read the signs of distress while Nico slept, and usually managed to wake him before the nightmares got too bad. Sometimes, though, it snuck up on both of them. 

Nico woke up screaming, that night, and the sound itself almost launched Will into a panic attack. He launched himself upright and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend to keep Nico from lashing out and punching him. (He hadn’t liked the idea of holding Nico down when the nightmares first started, but after his second black eye, he realized that he wouldn’t be any help if Nico ended up knocking him out.)

He pulled Nico back against his chest and tried to whisper calming words into his ear until Nico stopped thrashing. Once he finally relaxed, as if awake enough now to realize where he was, Will loosened his hold, and Nico spun in his lap to bury his sobs in Will’s chest. 

“It’s okay,” Will whispered again and again, between pressing kissing into Nico’s hair, “it was just a dream. I’ve got you, I’m here.” 

He put everything he had into his kisses, but he knew it wouldn’t matter.

There were some things he couldn’t kiss better.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!


End file.
